Journals from the First “Official Week” of the New Year

Friday, January 2, 2026

Wow, so odd to write “2026” yet here we are. Since I did my 2026 goals and posted them yesterday, I decided not to journal anything. That was enough, lol. But we had a great day yesterday. As usual, I had more on the list than I could handle but I knew that going into the day. And now I can relax and not make myself push through.

So we put up the Christmas trees – there were 3. I packed up all the Christmas decor that was piled up in the sun room and packed them wisely in boxes that George also wisely labeled. Our goal is that next year’s setting out of the decorations is much more pleasurable and we will both know where things are. That was a big win getting all of that out of the way.

We also had prime rib for dinner. And will have leftovers for dinner tonight. (And we had some bites along with our breakfast as well, this morning.)

Yesterday and the day before, I also was in the midst (and still am) of vlogging the New Year restart video. It’s the video where I talk about goals, share my first of the year Amazon Haul (bought with points earned all year in 2025). It’s the video where I take the viewers along with us for the New Year changeover, and starting the year fresh. I still have to vlog quite a bit today for the pieces that I need of the things I am resetting – so that is high on the TO Do List.

I slept really good last night. I think I only rolled over once. I’ve really been having a time of waking up in the night. I have tried to pay attention when I wake up as to what it causing it. So a little “root cause” cognitive activity at 1:30 a.m. a couple of nights ago helped me realize “I’m Uncomfortable”, “Why?” “My pillow is hot and the texture is bothering me”. Why we don’t think to actually ask ourselves these questions is beyond me. lol I have just been waking up and thinking darn I woke up AGAIN. And that is where the cognitive activity ended. So I changed pillow cases and the material is soft and smooth and I changed the pillow to a different pillow for a different thickness. I kept the extra blanket away from me, but close to where I can drape it over Maddie as she gets cold.

So bottom line is that I’ve been both hot and uncomfortable and have flopped around like a fresh caught Alaskan Halibut all night long. Last night I did not flop. I slept and was surprised this morning to wake up and discover it was 5:30 a.m. and not 1:30 a.m. Maddie was not pressed up against me but was snuggled in a fort she found by the pile of pillows on the bed. And she was ready to get up when she realized I was stirring.

So today I have to pay some of Mom’s bills, do a monthly transfer from my YouTube account to reimburse our personal account for the upcoming charges for Canva, storage, and Good Notes for my January expenses for YT that comes through apple. I didn’t want to mess with changing all that as my iTunes is on there and that should come out of personal but I think you can only put your subscriptions on one card, lol. So once a month I’ll make the transfer and I chose the 2nd of every month to do it.

I also need to do my monthly numbers for Dec 2025 for YT, social media – where I track a few things. Also need to check email. I need continue my vlogging and end that today. Tomorrow I start the new vlog as it’s my birthday and we are going on an excursion.

I need to pick out a recipe for next week for what I will be cooking so I can put ingredients on the grocery list for Sunday. I also need to do the planning for next week because I normally do that on Saturday and I won’t be here tomorrow to do it. But I have to plan when our life group will be as it’s at our house this month. We also need to plan when Mom and I will get our nails done and then I’m going to give myself a pedi for my Birthday with cash I have sitting in my purse. 🙂 Also want to have lunch with my friend and former boss, Deb from my job and we need to figure out when.

I still need to buy one more thing for my friend Lisa for her gift. I have some things but want to get one more thing to add to the gift bag and need to do that. Might find something while we are out tomorrow though so we’ll see.

Better get on with the day if I plan to do all that. It’s all pretty fun stuff just need to get to it.

It’s going to rain this afternoon but maybe not tomorrow now for our excursion. See you in the journal world tomorrow.

Sunday, January 4, 2026

Well no post yesterday but we were gone all day long mostly for my birthday excursion. I won’t write about it here as I’ll be posting the video on it soon.

But, I did get my mixer and it has a story with it too. Wow. And we had a nice day but we ate a LOT. And I found some much needed jeans for winter. That’s all I will say so as to not “double dip” the info, lol.

So today has also been busy. We had church today. Up again at 6 and out the door by 8 ish. Then to buy a pretty big grocery run for Mom. And we did Jersey Mike’s for lunch for all 3 of us. We bought Mom’s lunch today. Sometimes it’s just easier than doing 2 separate orders. She has told me to just buy ours with her card every 3rd Sunday and also to buy gas every now and then – but I don’t unless she specifically mentions it each time, because she has bought our meals throughout the years here and there. It’s tight for her and now it’s tight for us being retired too. But it’s fine. I feel weird doing that unless she specifically tells me to do it each time. I don’t want anyone thinking that we are doing it without being told so, just want it to be clear and so I don’t do it unless she says “go and do that this month”. If she doesn’t say it. I don’t do it.

So we got all the groceries in, the lunch in, our drinks in and my own groceries had to go in the freezer and fridge as well while we ate. After eating George went and got her mail and I got the bills out so I could pay that.

Also I had to do some banking for her there from one account to another that she and my Aunt split an investment account or two and so there’s always checks to write, have her sign and mobile deposit. She lost the password to the internet but George found it on the first page of her password booklet. I guess she couldn’t see it. I also helped her write a check for my niece’s birthday (her grand daughter). And I will be addressing her card here in a few. She also had me write a check for church as well, and I have that in my purse to put in next week.

Then we headed home. I put up groceries and George took the dogs out. I reset the day by playing Farmville2, lol. But only after I started a load of laundry, washing mine and Maddies couch throw, and starting up the dishwasher.

I have been in my office for about 2.5 hours once I could do all I could in Farmville2, lol. I have secured the date for life group at our house later in the month, sent a list of dates to have lunch with my former boss, worked on some notes for a video I’m doing later in the month – New Year, New Routines and I finished reading email, found the recipe I want to cook on Tuesday using the new rice cooker. I did the NOV and DEC months of World Bible School recap as I have to do the Year End recap soon. I realized Dec was so busy I never even did the Nov recap lol.

Oh and I transferred video files over for the New Year Reset vlog and the Birthday Surprise Excursion vlog. I think it’s ready to put in Final Cut Pro and I will do that next. I also need to update my Amazon Storefront with the recent purchases so it has everything in there in case anyone wants to order the same product for anything I mention in the vlog.

I also updated my blog “About Me” Section. I have to review these things from time to time so it includes recent data and not anything outdated. I review it annually usually. And it popped up recently on my To Do List.

So a very busy and productive office time today.

Tomorrow, I have some special plans with just myself to treat myself and I’ll share that tomorrow. But I am also starting the new year out doing some new things I’ve not done before. I’ll also be vlogging it. So I won’t bore you here with double dipped entries. But yeah, it’s going to be busy but the point is to enjoy life more, give more meaning to each day (grow and learn really is what that means), and to be a healthier version of me. So “time” is still going to be a problem but like I’ve said we are going to BLUR the lines this year, not rush, not hustle, and do what we want and see what happens. I will say that there will be changes to the exercise programs, more writing, more reading, more playing, diving into food journaling to identify what is holding me back psychologically from being able to change the way I eat. That will involve some self induced therapy and learning. And some deep forms of Bible study and journaling.

I’m so sleepy. I think I will enjoy sleeping tonight. So I think I want to relax some now and go watch a show. The dogs are hungry and probably need to go out again. Maddie is getting restless. More tomorrow.

Wednesday, January 7, 2026

I don’t know how it gets so busy. I didn’t take time to blog on Monday nor yesterday. Let’s back up to Monday. Monday was January 5 and the day that I officially designated as the official first day of the year, lol! In other words the holidays continued through the 4th so to speak. I put off any official to do’s, internet orders, financial projects for me, for Mom, making appointments, for nails for us, for hair for Mom. I had several projects that I was also going to start as of Jan 5th: a new vlog to vlog about New Year New Routines, also a pretty major video to edit with lots of footage for the new Year Reset and Goals video. I also had some things to wrap up for 2025 for WBS, which I have been working on but not finished. I had to order another birthday gift and I just got to that today. Mom had some bills due. And I needed to set up my new weight loss tracking program and the new YouTube analytics tracking. And Jan 5 was the day that I had promised I would review my YouTube analytics in the back office and make some observations and action items.

I have been as busy as a bee. I also had laundry for the week and some cleaning and also cooked dinner last night for us – a new recipe and used the rice cooker. I’m going to love this rice cooker and it will make life so much easier. I’m sure I’ll be talking about it. Perfect rice! But yeah, I’m talking about how busy life has been.

No worries, I’ve stopped to play Farmville2 and watch a couple of videos – but not many. It’s been surprising how fast the days have flown this week trying to stay on top of it all.

I also started my new stretching and exercise routine. I’m sad to say that the result of all of this had me:

1. Excited on Monday!
2. Worn out and not feeling good on Tuesday and didn’t even take a shower, even after working out. That’s NOT like me. But I opted to get stuff done instead.
3. Today, totally didn’t exercise in the name of getting some things done. But I did shower.

What can I say? We are “blurring the lines” this year, so anything goes.

So a lot of this week has been just getting administrative things set up and going and also doing things I’ve put off for a couple of weeks and so it just all landed this week. I’m working as hard here as I did at work. And it’s just busy. I don’t know how I had time to work.

I’m happy, and it will calm down a bit b/c a lot of these things will be spread out over time instead of just a week and so many things I was just getting started on or setting up.

I DID go and get my toes done yesterday – pedi. Mom didn’t want to go in the winter, so I went by myself. Tomorrow we will go and get our nails done and will be getting regular polish so we can do our nails on our own in February. And I’ll also do my own toes in February also and I figure we’ll get pedi’s in March. Maybe every other month for that. It’s just expensive and I feel the need to curb it. I also told another lady sitting next to me, that I was going to have to quit coming because the prices had gone up and with groceries and other expenses I wasn’t wanting to pay for it anymore. I did not care that an employee was listening while doing the lady’s feet. They need to know. The last 4 times I’ve been in there it’s been fairly empty with only about 25 to 30% capacity and this place used to have a waiting line. So either someone else around has better prices, or they give wine with the service, or some other big perks. I need to check around but I figure we’ll just curb it for now and see what happens. I will still get my toes done probably every other month.

So yeah, it’s just been busy. Just a lot I’m trying to do and in true fashion, I scheduled a lot of it to Jan 5th and I’m working through it. I’ve done a lot this week setting up new things and new ways of doing things.

Yesterday I was going to finish the vlogging of the New Year, New Routines vlog and I realized I’m ahead and while it was good to start the vlog to capture things I started this week, I don’t have to finish the vlog this week. I have another week or so to get it done and that gives me more time to continue working on my new routines and programs. Because I can tell you, the routines this week aren’t working because I had too much to do with the onset of a new year. It’ll all figure itself out, but I’m trying to “stop and smell the coffee” and enjoy life and if I feel overwhelmed I stop and play Farmville2 and/or read, or watch a show and then I REGROUP and toss things off to another day.

I’ve decided that Farmville2 does something for me that not many other things do. It works my brain in a way that work used to do. It “farms” a part of my brain that no other activity does. And so I’ve decided it’s not foolish to play it but that it makes my brain and mind stronger and helps keep it alert. It’s helping me with memory. And it helps feed the part of my brain that likes to organize and set routines, which is nothing new in that realm but the best I can describe is that it meets a need there. I’m so happy too when I’m doing it and planning the “running of the farm”. I can go and buy resources from “the market” and purchase land if made enough money, so I can increase the farm. You complete tasks to guide you through what you need to do but there’s also elements of making your own decisions about what is priority and what is most efficient and so forth. So it really gives my brain a work out but yet it relaxes it and strengthens it.

There’s only so many hours in the day so we just have to do the things that are most important and keep forwarding over the rest.

All that said, I’m very excited about the new year. Even if I am giving myself some grace this week and I just have to continue to learn how much it is that I can do in a week. That’s always a learning curve. lol

We got the vacuuming done today and I kid you NOT, there were 3 canisters of hair to empty – in a normal size vacuum! George did part of it doing baseboards, etc. I did all the main floors and bedrooms and carpeted areas. He did the sunroom. So I’m thankful we tag teamed it b/c doing all of the top floor of the house wears me out. I can’t do all of it in one day unless I’m just beaming with extra energy.

I also had a thousand things to do like – grinding coffee, doing our Target order, working on some writing projects – just getting it started so I would feel propelled to continue. I started my new devo’s for the year. I mean I could go on and on.

What I didn’t get to today is exercising, reading, swishing the toilet, cleaning the bathroom counter, scrubbing the tub, finishing WBS annual breakdown, updating my Amazon storefront, watching some YouTube training modules on becoming an affiliate and doing sponsorships, watching Sister Wives, checking on mom, taking my vitamin supplements, posting my 3 gratitudes for the day on Gratitude Plus.

Also we are about to call our River as it is his birthday today. Then call Mom and remind her about tomorrow. And so I’m going to go and do that and play Farmville2, and read.

And tomorrow is really busy:

10-12 Magi Packing

12:30 Pick up Mom, eat lunch and get nails done, and go to Sally’s for nail polish and stuff to do our own.

It’ll be dark-thirty by the time I get home so no chance of getting the thumbnail done or anything else.

But Friday will be a big work day here for me.

Friday’s to do list:

• Writing time
• Doing thumbnail
• Cardio day (tread mill)
• Pay Mom’s property taxes, or at least figure out what day I will pay them.
• YouTube training videos
• Scrapbooking time, getting organized for that and starting it
• Decide what we are eating for Life Group later in the month as it’s our turn to host
• Change George’s sheets
• Go through the house and assign the year’s household projects
• Mom’s financial analysis for Dec
• Order another Christmas gift for our last get together (we do this every year after Christmas)
• What new password app to use
• Wash my bedspread

There’s more but I won’t even have time to do all THAT! lol

Friday, January 9th

I was gone almost all day yesterday as mentioned above. We got the magi packing done and we got done early. So I picked Mom up and we went and had lunch at a place called Local Joe’s which is what we call a “meat and three” but we got a “meat and two”. We had turkey and dressing, field peas (whoever has that?) and dressed eggs. Ok the dressed eggs tasted like they were bought boiled eggs, not fresh so that was not a win, but the other food was excellent. They usually serve free cookies but they were out. Didn’t need it anyway, but if I’m being honest, I was secretly hoping for one. lol

What was nice was that they asked you your drink and brought that to you. They assisted with your tray while you paid. They helped Mom get seated with her walker and took her tray and got her drink and that was a huge help to me. Otherwise I’d have been helping her, getting TWO trays, TWO drinks, and paying for TWO meals. I’ve not gone there b/c I was not sure I could handle that! I’m so uncoordinated and goofy at times. I just thought it’d be easier to be served. But the longing for fresh veggies and good hot meal was just calling. We have had a lot of steak, chicken, salads, burgers, BBQ over the last couple of months and I think we both needed a good solid “home cooked” meat n 2! Now that I know how helpful they are at getting you through the cafeteria style set up, we CAN DO THIS AGAIN. So that was a big win. I told George we enjoyed it so much and he told me they were getting a Starbucks in there! Wow. I guess there has been a request for coffee. Well ok. I’m in 100% for THAT!

Then we went to Sally’s and I bought a couple of polishes for me to do my own nails. Mom bought a few things as well. And they were nice and helpful to her and that helped me as well. So I didn’t have to search for her special desired list of things – they knew where it was and to me it’s always like finding a needle in a haystack. lol. I can never find a person in a crowd and I can never find a product in a line up of a lot of other products. Things don’t normally jump out at me. It’s just overload so I was grateful for their help there too. The Lord was really looking out for us yesterday and I had prayed over the day too. I usually pray for people and for protection or healing, but sometimes I forget to pray “Lord lead us today and show us the path”. I also prayed he’d help me pick the restaurant to go to and he double blessed our day.

Then we had spare time but we asked the salon if they could take us early, if not we’d come back. They took us early. I am just going to be honest, the nail job using regular polish was just not a professional look. Almost all of my sides look like this. It’s just where the polish was not put on evenly. An older lady did my nails and maybe she just couldn’t see. She also got a little upset with me when I told her I wanted them clipped shorter. She said “I know, I know”. How could she have known? I told her I knew she couldn’t read my mind so I needed to let her know. She still didn’t cut them shorter so I reminded her again and she “later, later”. Ok.OK. So I told I just didn’t want to wait til she was finished and then tell her. I don’t plan to go back for my nails any time soon as I’ll do them myself so as to not pay the price. I have learned to love those ladies though and regardless of how poor this job was, we’ll toss it off to poor eyesight. I think the dip really helps them out and makes it look smooth. They probably don’t like doing regular polish. They were all talking in foreign language and I wish I had recorded it so I could translate it. I’m sure others are doing that. I forget we have the technology. But I think it’s illegal to record anyone without telling them you are doing it? Anyway, you can see below what a poor job. I am loving the white though.

Also, I had taken Mom a top that I knew she would like that I bought for $3 at a consignment sale. I also took her the blue jogging pants (let’s just call them leisure pants b/c you know neither Mom nor I are going be jogging, lol). These blue pants were in a set of three I ordered from Amazon. I have a lot of blue but gosh darn it, would you believe that nothing I had would work with those pants? Nothing looked right with it, not even gray. So I took them to Mom to see if she could wear them and she liked them so we ordered her a set of 3. They look nice and lay nice on you and she said they were good enough to wear out – they don’t look like joggers, lol. But they are stretchy at the waist and comfy like joggers. So we got those ordered.

And then I headed home. And once home, I really did not want to do anything else. It was close to 4:30 or so, and I held Maddie Sue and did Farmville2. 😉

George has been watching football now that there are playoffs. He was excited for that. So I read and almost finished my Bryson City Tales book. I did actually finish it today (this morning) with coffee as it had only one more chapter. I’m excited to realize the same doctor has a series of books so there’s more tales to come if we spot the author’s book’s at McKaye’s. I’m starting a new book today called The Tenant by Freida McFadden which is a library book actually. I need to read it in a week. That may not happen so I’m prepared to re-check it out for another two weeks. But I don’t know, Freida’s books are pretty good, so it could happen.

Today is my “writing day” and “project catch up day” and “creative day” so there are lots of options on the table. I think I mentioned that already in Wednesday’s post when I said what all was coming up on Friday so I won’t mention it again.

So I am going to go ahead and post this and we’ll start another blog week journal tomorrow. I hope you all are having a great start to your new year too.

I will say that we are praying for little River, who just turned 5. The day after his birthday he had his 5 year check up. At the check up they took his temp routinely. And guess what? He had a fever. So they tested for the flu and he had it. So River insists that he feels fine but he’s had 101 and 102. Wow. He’s a tough bugger to not feel that. But he was 100 this morning and needing tissues. She’s trying to keep him away from Trace but I don’t know how well that is going to work as they both touch toys and surfaces. So hopefully flu won’t run through the family but we’ll see. They had recently been playing at a party where they jump into all those big felt blocks. There is no telling how many germs where in there as you know at that point they are exposed to the entire community and beyond not just his particular school or friends. So it’s easy to pick up germs that are new in situations like that. Anyway, it’s that time of year. So far so good here. I think not working helped my stress levels and has helped my immune system. I’ve also been taking zinc pretty much daily since November. But you never know. I could get sick anyway now that I’ve said this.

Ok over and out.